After Covid-19 let's use all God’s gifts to shape a future freedom in tune with nature

We are again looking history in the face and wondering about the future.

And it was two women, elderly now, who summed up how to honour the legacy of the past.

The first is the Queen. She encouraged us, as we struggle with death, grief and fear, to build confidence in qualities and actions that are good and will endure.

“Never give up, never despair” was a message of hope for all of us.

The virtue of hope is a rock on which we build our conviction that human beings are capable of astonishing goodness. It is also the foundation for faith in God who has made us, loves us, and will not abandon us.

Vera Lynn is the second woman whose voice has echoed again across the nation at a time of trial and loss. Her powerful songs remind us of the capacity of music to lift our spirits and to bind us together across the differences of age and context.

The promise of bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover conjures up an image of this island that goes deep. But what was the freedom for which we had fought, victoriously, 75 years ago?

Vera Lynn’s song might be dismissed as a sentimental answer to that question. But I think we should consider it more seriously.

The hopes for Jimmy sleeping in his own little room again remind us of the priority of attention to the rising generations. Our priority must still be to provide equal opportunities for the world’s children to live well, in freedom.

In the context of today’s environmental crisis, the hope that “the valley will bloom again” commits us to a change of lifestyle. We cannot ravage the earth any further and expect no damaging consequences.

And the song’s reference to tending sheep reinforces this message. The life and extinction of creatures that share our common home, the earth, is a warning we must heed.

Freedom is one of God’s gifts to humanity. But it is a gift that can be destroyed by greed. It is also terribly betrayed when we ignore humanity’s inter-dependence and our responsibility for creation.

So let us use well all God’s gifts to us, including wisdom, creativity and intelligence, to shape a future freedom in tune with nature, in harmony with each other.

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